After two years of civil war, support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad was said to have sharply increased.

NATO has been studying data that told of a sharp rise in support for Assad. The data, compiled by Western-sponsored activists and organizations, showed that a majority of Syrians were alarmed by the Al Qaida takeover of the Sunni revolt and preferred to return to Assad.
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.The data, relayed to NATO over the last month, asserted that 70 percent of Syrians support the Assad regime. Another 20 percent were deemed
neutral and the remaining 10 percent expressed support for the rebels.
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A report to NATO said Syrians have undergone a change of heart over the last six months. The change was seen most in the majority Sunni community, which was long thought to have supported the revolt.

“The Sunnis have no love for Assad, but the great majority of the community is withdrawing from the revolt,” the source said. “What is left is the foreign fighters who are sponsored by Qatar and Saudi Arabia. They are seen by the Sunnis as far worse than Assad.”

Much was made last week about the infiltration of Sen. John McCain
(R-Arizona) into Syria for a brief photo op with various anti-Assad
“rebels”—who, it turns out, have allegedly been involved in kidnappingLebanese Shi’a pilgrims. (Senator McCain claims
that none of the individuals with whom he was photographed identified
themselves by names of those accused of kidnapping Shi’a pilgrims; his
spokesman says
it would be “regrettable” if the Senator had been photographed with
people accused of committing such acts.) Speaking at the Ronald Reagan
Presidential Library, another GOP Senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, noted acidly, “They say there are some pro-Western people and we’re going to vet them. Well, apparently we’ve
got a senator over there who got his picture taken with some
kidnappers, so I don’t know how good a job we’re going to do vetting
those who are going to get the arms.”